VMware View 4.5 - Thin Client with PCoIP using Windows 7 (Part 1)

Note: that this works with all View Client versions View 4.5, 4.6 and 5.0.

Series of Posts

• VMware View 4.5 - Thin Client with PCoIP using Windows 7 (Part 1)
• VMware View 4.5 - Building the Windows 7 Thin Client (Part 2)
• VMware View 4.5 - Configuring the Local Account on the Thin Client (Part 3)

For what must be the fourth time at work we're looking in to deploying a Thin Client environment. This time we're focusing on VMware View 4.5 and looks to have addressed many of the problems we had in the past. We've stood up a VMware View and a few other systems in the past but weren't satisfied with them.

Our big use case where View machines can be offered to students via VPN and connected to from home using the student's own hardware and everything works perfect. However one of the use cases management wants VMware View to fill is as a replacement for actual Student labs on campus. Where a lab machine is running VMware View and offering students their choice of VM's. This also needed to be accomplished with the following firm constraints.

• VMware View 4.5
• Reuse existing PC's in labs as the client hardware.
• Use PCoIP has the protocol for enhanced multimedia experience.
• Lock down the PC hardware.
• Management of the hardware is required. (Example: SCCM and/or Forefront)
• Easy of Client deployment.

The issue became what OS and how to configure it on the current lab hardware. VMware doesn't really supply a good guide on this for View 4.5. What’s even more surprising appears to be a lack of a good community supplied setup guide; at least that I've found after looking. Sorry if' I've just missed it.

And there appears to be no way of doing a bootable image (WinPE or Linux) that uses PCoIP.  Further research believes me to believe that short of running Windows embedded or a full blown copy of Windows is the only option for PCoIP on re-purposed hardware client.

After approaching this problem and lack of helpful walk through on line I hope this will be just that to others interested in a same or similar setup. I have worked out a method to reach all these constraints and am interested on what the on-line community thinks of it as I will be using Windows 7 as the client OS and PCoIP as the protocol. I'll be posting the solution and steps to creating it in next several posts starting with this one as the length to this guide proves necessary.

Special Thanks to Patrick Towles, Paul Ritter, and Matthew Campbell for their help on this subject..